1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to text strings in data processing systems and in particular to encapsulation of identification, meaning or pronuciation information in text strings. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-field text string encapsulating identification, meaning, and pronunciation information utilizing different character sets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multinational companies often run information system (IS) networks which span multiple countries spread around the globe. To maximize the usefulness of such networks, operations within each locale tend to run in the local language of the region. Where possible, names of abstract objects in user applications are in the local language and match the local language organization, city, or human names which the abstract objects represent. In the case of system management software, often abstract objects would represent each of a global enterprise's local offices.
Central management of such a global network may be difficult or impossible when abstract object names utilize the local language and the local language's underlying character set. For offices located in Egypt, abstract objects would most naturally be named in Arabic; offices in Russia would name objects utilizing the Cyrillic character set; and for offices in Japan, objects would be named in Japanese. A problem arises, however, when a enterprise's headquarters IS staff attempts to examine these objects. The IS staff at the multinational headquarters located in the United States is unlikely to be able to read Arabic or Japanese, or even recognize Cyrillic characters.
Japanese, for example, is a logosyllabic or ideographic language which does not have an alphabet representing simple sounds, but instead has a very large character set with symbols (“ideographs”) corresponding to concepts and objects rather than simple sounds. For instance, the Joyo Kanji List (Kanji for Daily Use) adopted for the Japanese language in 1981 includes 1945 symbols. Users unfamiliar with the Kanji characters will have difficulty identifying a particular abstract object named in Japanese, as well as difficulty even discussing such abstract objects over the telephone with an English- and Japanese-speaking counterpart.
Additionally, merely seeing an ideograph may provide no clue as to the correct meaning or pronunciation since, in Japanese, the same character may have multiple meanings or pronunciations. For instance, the character depicted in FIG. 7A may mean either “West” or “Spain”; the symbol depicted in FIG. 7B may be pronounced either “hayashi” or “rin” (or “lin”); and the characters depicted in FIG. 7C may be pronounced “suga no,” “suga ya,” “kan no,” or “kan ya.” This circumstance is based in part on the history of the Japanese language, in which the Kanji characters were adopted from the Chinese language in several waves. Thus, for example, the “rin” symbol depicted in FIG. 7B is On-Yomi, basically a simulation of the Chinese pronunciation when the character was imported to Japan, while “hayashi” is Kun-Yomi, a Japanese word assigned to the character which has the same meaning.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a data processing system text string encapsulating identification, meaning, and pronunciation information utilizing different character sets.